Continuing
After a relaxing break from these things (and an actual vacation) I returned to the track business. In my mind this was going to be pretty simple: a few painting runs per track, smashing them in and... this bit would be done.
The painting process
I primed my tracks with the dried bone. After that I took a few rounds for coating them with flat black, inside and outside, first having them lie on one side, then the other. This gave me a pretty good coverage.
The photo below showed the first session's result with the tracks lying on one side only. One of the tracks split into a few subchunks due to underapplication of glue much earlier. This wasn't an issue, as it made painting a bit easier and reconnecting them was simple.
First weathering
After the final blackening I painted the inner and outer surfaces lightly with brown (VMA 71037 Mud Brown). The goal was, traditionally, to get a nice, lighty dirtyish look.
On top of the brown I drybrushed my goto-metal (VMA 71072 Gunmetal), highlighting the track link edges and the teeth on the inner run. My goal was to get a pretty simple and gentle effect on the bits that were under the most mechanical wear.
Some people have recommended using a pencil on the track links, I couldn't remember if I had tried it, maybe that was looming somewhere in my future. The photo showed how the earlier one piece track had also split in two. Again, not a problem of any sort.
The installation process
The right track
Installing the tracks was a tiny bit worrisome. I started by fixing the tracks into single pieces again with superglue. After waiting for a bit I took the right side track with its drive sprocket, and dry-fitted for safety. As soon as I was certain of my success, I applied glue to the sprocket's axle hole and set the pieces into their places. When the alignments were good, I sealed the track loop with superglue.
The left track
Installing the second track was as simple as the first one, except that this time I had a bit less convenient holding spots for spinning the model around. The freshly installed right track had stolen away the support spots from the opposing side.
The track I had built wasn't optimal, but such was life and the price for not working on tanks in (too) many years. All in all the tank's look changed quite a bit with this step.
Oh, and go ahead and guess if I noticed way too late that I had set this track the wrong way? Yeah. The inner side of the track links were facing outside. Sigh.
Luckily I've never made the mistake of calling myself a good nor even mediocre modeler :D
A topless large cat
Of course I took more test photos. The top hull was something I was not courageous enough to dry-fit on again. I wasn't even sure if I was ever going to do that, due to the fitting issues.
Weathering was just about all that was missing here. What a shame, that my oil stains had dried into their jar.
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